Why I Quit or: How I learned to Stop Playing and Love my Time (Part 1)

Hi. My name is Levi Southerlan and I’m an addict. You may not perceive it right away, but it’s there, lying just beneath the surface. I may make a quip about it now and again, but hey, I’m just having fun. I can’t stop anytime I want to. Really, I can. I’m not hurting anyone. They’re just video games. Just Video Games. JUST VIDEO GAMES. JUST. VIDEO. GAMES. No, they’re not “just video games”. They’re my life. Well, they were my life. Then something happened. I hit a wall. I just couldn’t do it anymore. I picked up a controller and my mind reeled. It took every ounce of will I had to push one more button. I had lost it. How did I get there? Here’s how. (Full Discolsure: I don't believe Video Game Addiction is a real thing. Really, it's not.)

Background Check

First, some background. I am a middle class, American, white guy born in the mid-1980’s. It’s in my blood to play video games. I started young with the Nintendo Entertainment System and spiraled out of control from there. My brother soon purchased the Sega Genesis and I snuck every minute I could from it. I spiraled. I saved up my own precious kid dollars and bought a Super Nintendo. I spiraled. I worked my hands to the bone doing chores, saving up for that Nintendo 64. Again, I spiraled. Playstation, Gamecube, Playstation 2, XBOX all came and went. You better believe I spiraled. Sure, my childhood was filled with friends and fun, but there wasn’t a day where I didn’t slink down to my basement to grab a couple minutes of game time. That was fine, it always worked out. Then college hit me.

For legal reasons, I cannot discuss the terms of my expulsion from [REDACTED] University.

Pictured:  Definitely NOT the University's Logo

Fast forward 6 years to (almost) present day. I have my degree in game design. I hang out with other people that also enjoy video games, I work at an ambitious start-up game company, and I generally get by pretty well. My gaming is excessive, but in check. I’m not addicted. I can quit any time I want.

The calendar rolls over. It's 2013. I fly out to spend a week with old friends from that old University I got booted from. We're in the middle of nowhere for a week, away from every form of communication and technology you can think of. It’s surreal. It’s freeing. It is perfect…and then, in the blink of an eye, I’m back; back to the grind, away from everyone I care about, or like, or can really even tolerate. I feel different, like I’ve learned something new about the world and how to interact with it. I didn't realize I could just talk to people. I didn't have to be the snarky nerd anymore. I could have a genuine conversation with other people without reverting back to this stereotype I had given myself. This time away from technology has given me perspective. I don’t know what it is (and still don’t), but gaming is dead to me. So, what do I do now?

The Stats

To figure out what comes next, I decided to first figure out how much time I would have to spend doing other things. After all, if I eliminate this one, small area of my life, how much time would I really get back? A few hours? Maybe a day? Let's find out. Here are 4 games from the past 4 years that most embody the time-sucking potential of modern video games.

Borderlands - October 20, 2009

In this hybrid Shooter/RPG, the character plays as one of 4 vault hunters in search of treasure on the Desert Planet of Pandora. Of the 4 characters, I played differing amounts of time with each of them. Here are the stats.

0 days :04 hours :42 minutes :47 seconds. Berserker
1 days :04 hours :21 minutes :47 seconds. Soldier
3 days :01 hours :14 minutes :47 seconds. Siren
3 days :02 hours :48 minutes :36 seconds. Hunter
Total: 179 Hours

Yes, you read those right. Some of those files are measured in DAYS. Add up just that and you have a week. An entire WEEK STRAIGHT would net you the same amount of play time I poured into this game.

Fallout: New Vegas - October 19, 2010

In this open-world RPG (Role Playing Game), you play as a courier shot in the head and left for dead in a shallow grave in the desert. Thankfully, with the help of a kindly robot friend, you find your way out to tread the Mojave and exact revenge on the mobsters that put you in that grave.

Save 1: 35 Hours
Save 2: 30 Hours
Save 3: 12 Hours
Save 4: 4 Hours
Save 5: 41 Hours
Save 6: 60 Hours
Total: 182 HOURS

You’re telling me I sank ANOTHER week into this game? Yup. All told, it comes out to around 7.5 days of playtime, just 3 hours over my previous total. I can’t believe I did this. There’s not even 4 characters in this one. It’s just one dude, over and over again. There will never be another open-world RPG that will make me this much of a sucker again.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - November 11, 2011

In this open-world RPG, you play as a blah blah blah blah we all saw this coming. This time, you’re ABOUT to be executed when a dragon attacks. Then, you go exact revenge on dragons by shouting at them or something. At least this time I only have 3 saves.

Bramblepelt: A Khajit hand to hand Specialist-73 hours
Brutalitops: A Dark Elf Mage-90 Hours
Leviticus: A Wood Elf Archer-101 Hours
Total: 264 Hours

Are you kidding me? One hundred and one hours on ONE SAVE?! 264 HOURS TOTAL?! 11 days. That’s 11 days of my life I will never get back. That’s 11 days spent crafting Iron Daggers to level up my blacksmithing skills so I could make armor out of dragon bones that I now have to go fight a dragon for, because he’s not giving them up willingly. That’s 11 days spent chasing butterflies around trying to pull their wings off so I could make some stupid potion for a quest that I genuinely did not remember who I was doing it for in the first place. That’s 11 days of getting launched into low Earth orbit by giants that freak out if you just wander into their camp. And guess what. I never actually BEAT THE GAME on ANY of those saves. Yea, I went gallivanting across the north and didn't even bother to do the main quest. That's a punch in the gut.

 Can it get worse than this?

Borderlands 2 - September 18, 2012

Now with Dumb Pre-Order Bonuses!

IT’S THE SAME GAME. IT’S THE SAME GAME AS BEFORE ALL OVER AGAIN AND ALL THEY DID WAS STICK A ‘2’ ON THE END AND I FELL FOR IT.

0 days :08 hours :38 minutes :16 seconds Gunserker
1 days :12 hours :32 minutes :06 seconds Assassin
1 days :22 hours :21 minutes :32 seconds Mechromancer
2 days :14 hours :53 minutes :52 seconds Siren
2 days :20 hours :12 minutes :52 seconds Commando
Total: 220 Hours

This. This right here. I PERFECTED Borderlands 1. I got every single achievement. There was no corner of that forsaken wasteland that I didn’t explore, map, loot and blow up. What is the most logical next step? Do it all over again, sucker.


That's over a month, and these 4 games don’t even constitute a TENTH of what I’ve played over the last 4 years, much less my lifetime. I’ve beat every Halo (Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo: ODST, Halo Reach, and Halo 4) on Legendary. I’ve bested the Mass Effect Trilogy as all 6 classes. I’m on my tenth run-through of X-COM. I played World of Warcraft at launch. I went against my better judgment and got into League of Legends. I have sunk literally countless hours on Call Of Duty Multiplayer, including Call of Duty 2, Call of Duty 3, Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Call of Duty: World at War, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 (Just looking at this list is depressing). Team Fortress 2? Three Hundred and Eighty Three Soul-Sucking hours. That’s over 2 weeks. I can’t even begin fathom what all those add up to.

Pictured:  My Inventory a.k.a. virtual items that mean absolutely nothing.

Let's see this decision one more time in chart form.

Yup, sounds about right.

Into The Future

So this is where I am now. I’m slowly figuring out what video games have cost me. It may not be as severe as a physical addiction. I may not go through withdrawal, or lose the love of my family, or even hit rock bottom and have to do favors for unsavory characters, but it’s still costing me my life. Minute by minute, hour after hour, my time slips away, sucked through my TV, into my console, recorded as a number on a stat sheet. This is why I quit.

[In part 2, I'll discuss another area of my life that I have regained control over thanks to quitting video games: Money. Stay Tuned.]